Saturday June 19th 2021

This week saw the 2nd XI play against Plumtree following the tragic loss of one of their players. It was so moving to witness so many powerful, heartfelt and emotional moments both before and during the game that reflected just how much he meant to his friends, his teammates and his Club.

The game itself saw Plumtree put together a massive 345 for 5 from their 48 overs with two of their players reaching a century. The highlight of our fielding performance was a remarkably well-controlled and elegant full length dive produced by Ben Sheppard in preventing a boundary from a beautifully struck straight dive. In reply the Squirrels put together a creditable 246 for 8 wickets with Ben Sheppard making 63, Andrew Mooney, in his first game for the 2s, hitting 35 and Seb Sayer 33. The last few overs saw a more defensive attitude being adopted in order that we could claim a losing draw, albeit 99 runs behind our visitors.

The 3rd XI took on Bramcote in a game that contrasted sharply with the almost 600 run aggregate at The Strand. Bramcote were restricted to just 135 for 9 from their 45 overs with good bowling performances from Jago Barham-Morris (3 wickets for 9 runs from 7 overs) in particular, well supported by Sam Henson, Chas Simkiss and James Binnie with a brace each. A great foundation for a win had been set but it wasn’t to be as wickets tumbled rapidly, watched, probably with some disbelief, by opener Pete Bateman who carried his bat and finished the game unbeaten on 31. The Squirrels were dismissed for just 81 to give Bramcote a win by 54 runs.

It was left to the 4th XI (again) to provide the performance of the day. Electing to bat first against Old Dalby they amassed 265 runs for just 3 wickets with a record breaking 3rd wicket partnership of 195 between captain Sam Randall 111 (7 6s & 10 4s), his second and highest century for the 4s, and Martin Rayner ending on an unbeaten 135 (3 6s & 18 4s). Only the second time that two Attenborough players have recorded centuries in the same game. A truly memorable day for Martin, scoring his first century for the club in his very first game for the 4ths and joining a pretty elite club of all-rounders that have scored centuries and also claimed 5 or more wickets. In reply Old Dalby were always likely to struggle and conceded the game with the score on 30 for 7 after a knee injury to one of their players. Opening bowlers Ben Goodlass, taking 4 for 20, and Harjit Singh 3 for 10 produced a truly devastating spell.

Graham Shaw